Re: New signing : Thu Jan 28, 2016 3:13 pm  

Gledhill may have discovered sarcasm.

whilst his best years are behind him, at least he is a proven full back no other position and its up to the young pretenders to show that they can make it their own. I would hope that his role is a mentoring one that can bring the young pretenders on, especially Caprice

Re: New signing : Thu Jan 28, 2016 3:27 pm  

Oscar Thomas must be pig sick of Mathers, he kept him out of the side at London (until Mathers mysteriously go injured and wasnt seen again) and now Mathers turns up at The Bulls.

Re: New signing : Thu Jan 28, 2016 3:36 pm  

I logged on to say something and found that martinwildbull had just said what I was thinking.
We have a few young inexperienced "potential" fullbacks. Maybe he isn't on as much as people may guess at and his job is to work with the 5 or so players who may get the job one day.
It is effectively a 9 month contract where hopefully one of the young lads will by then have learnt from him. If he gets fit he might just step up to the plate in the odd big game if the young un's don't quite cut it this year.

Odd signing but Jimmy must have looked at the young lads and thought it would be useful to have an old head training with them and able to be called on when needed.
Jimmy must think he has something to offer. If not, it could be Jimmy's last signing before the board decide in the summer whether to stick with Jimmy or look around.

Still an out of the blue type of signing though - time will tell I suppose.

Re: New signing : Thu Jan 28, 2016 3:37 pm  

Reading the article on the Bulls website gives us a clue as to Lowes thinking. Mathers sates Lowes specifically wants him to be vocal and organising the defensive line in combination with mentoring, something his experience will allow him to do. I remember Reardon being dropped from fullback not long after winning the grand final MOM award at full back, and that was the reason given by Noble(who I wouldn't question on this) - Reardon was too quiet in defensive organisation from full back. Given that Jimmy played in that same team presumably he doesn't see those qualities in his other available options at the moment, and as long as mathers passes that experience on to our younger options then I can at least start to see some logic to it....even if I still might not agree with the signing and hope Thomas makes himself the default number one with Mathers stepping in as and when.

[Bullseye]

Re: New signing : Thu Jan 28, 2016 3:40 pm  

Meh.

Re: New signing : Thu Jan 28, 2016 3:41 pm  

Initially was a bit disappointed but thinking now that's it's probably because numerous sources hyped it up.

Mathers, 32 - Probably past his best. However he is a vastly experienced winner and has played and stayed in some very strong sides over the years. Reputation as a quality pro, looks after himself and developed into a leader. I'm looking forward to him marshalling the defence from the back and offering a steadying hand when backs are against the wall.

32 is not to shabby, and if he can bring what I hope he does then he should be a solid signing.

Yeah we've got Clare, Campbell, Thomas, Caprice and whoever else can fill in at FB but Richie is an actually full back that has played their all his career. It seems as if we as fans were hoping that one of the previous might make the No1 jersey their own. I have doubts that any of them will be any better than Mathers in that position as of now or in 12 months time.

The only thing they probably do have on him is age and perhaps pace. Mathers is positional sound and for me I would take that over a bit of pace.

Re: New signing : Thu Jan 28, 2016 3:55 pm  

Bullseye wrote:

Meh.

You really need to work on cutting down the length of your posts, I'm not sure I can cope with such ramblings...just get to the point man.

[PopTart]

Re: New signing : Thu Jan 28, 2016 4:29 pm  

Mathers is one of those players that can look not bothered when things aren't working, especially when a big lad is running straight at him.
However, our defence was never as good as when Mathers was organising it, and he has skills especially in attack. He's a good team "energiser" too so although I was surprised to see him sign, he isn't a terrible signing.

Re: New signing : Thu Jan 28, 2016 4:35 pm  

Any truth that BetFred in Wibsey and William Hills in Manchester Road are taking on extra staff?

Re: New signing : Thu Jan 28, 2016 5:11 pm  

To be fair, we haven't got a recognized full back who is fit. Clare has only ever played wing other than the odd game at FB, Caprice is a union player on trial, Campbell is a winger with a bad long term injury, anyone know when he is back, Thomas is a utility player. mathers will offer experience and I can't believe he is on massive money and could just help us out